Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 26

A 24-foot ocean cruiser Jeanneau built with Philippe Briand, now out of production, offering a lot of room and sea-going ability for a first cruising yacht.

The Sun Odyssey 26 is no longer in Jeanneau's range, but she's worth knowing about if you want a small boat that can genuinely go to sea. Philippe Briand designed her with Jeanneau as a proper ocean cruiser, and at 7,50 m / 24' she carries 850 kg / 1870 lbs of ballast to back that up.

On deck she feels larger than her length. Jeanneau compared the foredeck's width to that of a 10 m / 33' sailboat, and the cockpit was laid out to be as safe and comfortable as you'd expect on a bigger yacht.

Below, you get over 1,80 m / 5'10" of standing headroom. The aft cabin takes up the full width of the boat and has a 2 m x 1,60 m / 6'7" x 5'3" berth, and the head is full size, at more than 1,20 m / 4' long. There are two cabins, and she's rated for up to 5 people.

Draught is 1.2 m on the standard keel. Jeanneau also built a centreboard version drawing only 0,70 m / 2'3", which opens up shallow water that used to be reserved for much smaller boats.

She measures 7.59 m overall, with a hull length of 7.49 m, and carries 25 l of fuel and 100 l of fresh water.